Strategic Plan Project Manager

UMass Amherst•Amherst, NY

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Strategic Plan Project Manager supports implementation of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences’ Strategic Plan by coordinating cross-functional initiatives involving faculty, staff, and students across the College and its departments, as well as campus and external partners. The role translates strategic priorities and emerging ideas into implementation plans, establishes and monitors timelines and deliverables, coordinates communication and documentation, and ensures participants have the information and resources needed to advance projects. The Project Manager acts as a central coordinating point between those developing strategic initiatives and the staff and units responsible for execution. The position organizes workflows, identifies dependencies, facilitates communication, tracks progress, and supports implementation of College priorities. A significant responsibility is coordinating the operational implementation of the SBS Democracy Project, a signature Strategic Plan initiative bringing together research, teaching, public engagement, events, student programming, community partnerships, and other College and University activities. The role serves as a liaison among stakeholders and supports related strategic initiatives as priorities evolve.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree.
Three years of experience with project management, program administration, organizational operations, or related areas.
Excellent organizational skills, independent judgment, and attention to detail, with the ability to prioritize and manage several projects simultaneously.
Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to lead and interact effectively, work productively, and maintain professional and harmonious working relationships with diverse faculty and staff.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate credibly and authoritatively with faculty, staff, administration, and other constituents.
Ability to think creatively, solve problems, elicit cooperation from multiple offices and institutions, build bridges, and innovate practices and processes for optimized outcomes.
Ability to read, understand, apply, and explain rules, regulations, and policies or procedures related to duties.
Ability to understand and follow complex oral and written instructions and create effective and efficient work processes.
Ability to exercise sound judgment.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, and Outlook, and ability to quickly learn additional relevant software applications.

Nice To Haves

Experience in higher education, particularly within a complex academic organization.
Experience supporting strategic planning, organizational change, or implementation of institution-wide or cross-functional initiatives.
Experience working with faculty and translating faculty- or leadership-generated concepts into operational plans.
Experience coordinating events, forums, workshops, research initiatives, grant or funding programs, or public-facing programming.
Familiarity with project-management methodologies and tools.

Responsibilities

Manage projects and initiatives associated with the SBS Strategic Plan, translating strategic priorities into actionable workplans, timelines, milestones, deliverables, and follow-up activities.
Coordinate concurrent projects involving faculty, staff, students, campus partners, and external partners; establish and communicate responsibilities, deadlines, and next steps.
Monitor project progress against goals and timelines, identify delays, gaps, competing priorities, and implementation challenges, and work with stakeholders on solutions.
Serve as a central point of coordination for the SBS Democracy Project, supporting research initiatives, working groups, funding programs, events, public engagement, curricular efforts, partnerships, and related programming.
Connect faculty-led ideas and strategic priorities with administrative and operational functions, helping define scope, responsibilities, sequencing, resource needs, and College partners.
Coordinate with the College’s Communications and Events Team on planning and execution of events, forums, workshops, announcements, web content, promotional activities, and strategic communications.
Organize strategic planning meetings, implementation discussions, forums, and working groups; develop timelines and agendas, coordinate participants and materials, document decisions, and ensure follow-up.
Develop and maintain project documentation, implementation calendars, project trackers, decision logs, status reports, and other systems that show progress on initiatives.
Facilitate communication across departments and functional areas so stakeholders receive timely, accurate information about expectations, responsibilities, deadlines, decisions, and changes.
Track Strategic Plan milestones, deliverables, and measures of progress and assist College leadership with implementation updates, reports, presentations, and planning discussions.
Coordinate processes for internal funding opportunities and other strategic initiatives, including timelines, communications, submissions, reviews, award documentation, and follow-up.
Support development and implementation of new strategic initiatives by establishing project structures and coordinating work across relevant College and University partners.
Identify opportunities to improve project management practices, workflows, documentation, and coordination, and develop tools and processes that support effective implementation.
Perform related duties as assigned or required to meet department, executive area/division, and University goals and objectives.